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U.S. Smashes Record with nearly 90,000 New Cases; Trump & Biden Fan Across Crucial Swing States in Final Sprint; Trump Rallies Resulting in COVID-19 Spikes. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired October 30, 2020 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is by far the highest number of cases we've ever seen. The virus is raging.
[05:59:11]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The U.S. will probably climb past 100,000 infections per day within the next couple of weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the hardest point in this pandemic right now. We can't give up our guard.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We locked down, we understood the disease, and now we're up for business.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything is about turning out your voters, and if that's what's going to turn out Trump voters, then he's welcome to make that argument. It's not going to help us get past the pandemic.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald Trump has surrendered to the virus. I'm not going to shut down the country, but I'm going to shut down the virus.
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ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Friday, October 30, 6 a.m. here in New York. And this morning, there is no place to hide. Those are the words from the governor of Ohio.
As of this morning, you have five days left to vote. And that's huge. It really is. And normally, that is all we would be talking about this morning, but something is happening that will challenge us past November 3. In fact, it might be one of the most challenging periods in our nation's history.
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The U.S. has just recorded the highest number of new coronavirus cases since the outbreak began. There is no place to hide. Nearly 90,000 new cases reported overnight. That's more than one new
case per second. Think about that, and it's getting worse.
Forty-three states are seeing cases rise. All the states there in red. That includes the most competitive states, we should say, in the election. Nine hundred and seventy-one new deaths reported. Three states with a record number of new deaths. Seventeen states are seeing more hospitalizations than ever before. There is no place to hide.
There are also record cases and hospitalizations in Minnesota, where President Trump is complaining that he can't have more people at a rally there.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Joe Biden will also be in Minnesota today, although his rally will look much different than President Trump's. Biden's will be a socially-distant drive-in, like the kind he's done throughout the pandemic.
Both candidates will also be in Wisconsin. Biden is visiting Iowa, as well, which is a rare sight for a Democrat in the final week of the campaign.
President Trump plans to visit Michigan, where Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama will appear together tomorrow.
This morning, more than a third of all registered voters have already cast their ballots.
But we begin with the unprecedented coronavirus levels. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is live in Chicago with our top story -- Adrienne.
ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, the U.S. is smashing records it would rather not break, recording the most number of new cases Thursday throughout the pandemic.
And as those hospitalizations rise, experts are sounding the alarm.
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BROADDUS (voice-over): The United States hitting a new single-day high of coronavirus cases on Thursday, recording more than 88,000 new infections. It's the third time during the pandemic that the country surged past the 80,000 mark, and all three happened in the past week.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think it's a direct result of two horribly fatal errors. One is our failure to mask up this country at the end of March or the beginning of April. And also, a failure of us to get enough testing out throughout the country. And all of this came about by sidelining the professionals who knew what they were doing.
BROADDUS: An influential new model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations is now predicting that the total coronavirus death toll may reach nearly 400,000 Americans by February 1 if behavior doesn't change. And by early next year, the country could see more than 2,200 deaths per day. DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: This is the hardest point
in this pandemic right now, the next two months.
BROADDUS: Seventeen states are seeing new highs in hospitalizations from the virus.
In El Paso, Texas, the county judge ordered all nonessential business to shut down starting today. County health data says there are over 14,000 current coronavirus cases, and the hospitalization rate is rising. The state's attorney general claims El Paso County judge is in violation of the governor's executive order and has no authority to shut down any business.
JUDGE RICARDO A. SAMANIEGO, EL PASO COUNTY: When we focused on public health as being the most important and then minimizing the economy, that's the way we were able to get into opening the economy.
BROADDUS: The Midwest seeing dramatic increases in cases. Here in Illinois, the state reporting its highest number of daily new cases thus far. Ohio also seeing record cases and hospitalizations.
GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): The virus is raging throughout the state of Ohio. There's no place to hide.
BROADDUS: The high case number in North Dakota forcing the governor to raise the risk level in 21 counties. The governor warning residents about the holidays.
GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND): We've got a difficult operating environment for the next two months, because the natural rhythm that we have in our state and the natural rhythm of holidays in our country, this is going to be a really challenging time for us, as a state and as a nation.
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BROADDUS: Tough time for everyone. Seventeen states reporting positivity rates above 10 percent. Among those 17, eight states topping a positivity rate of 20 percent.
And here's something else for you. Yesterday alone, 971 people died in one day, and health experts here in the Midwest say as we see hospitalizations go up and more new cases, that's likely an indicator of what is to come -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Adrienne, thank you very much for all of that reporting.
So President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden crisscrossing the Midwest in this final stretch of the campaign. The president will be in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
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Biden hits Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. And that's where we find CNN's Jeff Zeleny. He's live in Des Moines, where Biden has not been since he placed fourth in the Iowa caucuses. This will be a different feel today, Jeff.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. Good morning.
As this campaign enters its final closing weekend here, Republicans are hopeful the race is tightening, and Democrats are anxious that it
may be. That this presidential battleground is also now a pandemic battleground, where how both sides are campaigning is suddenly a central issue.
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ZELENY (voice-over): President Trump and Joe Biden crossing paths in Florida.
TRUMP: We are going to win Florida. We are going to win four more years.
BIDEN: It's up to you. You hold the key. If Florida goes blue, it's over. It's over.
ZELENY: The dueling rallies speak volumes about their markedly different view of the rising coronavirus crisis. The president bragging about his crowds.
TRUMP: There's a lot of people -- look where that crowd is.
ZELENY: The former vice president seizing on them, too, but to draw a sharp distinction.
BIDEN: President Trump's super-spreader events, and he's spreading more virus around the country.
ZELENY: The home stretch of the race is consumed by the deepening crisis, with some of the most at-risk states also key campaign battlegrounds.
Today, Trump is heading to Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Biden to Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The Midwest a critical path in their quest to win 270 electoral votes.
The president sending mixed signals on masks.
TRUMP: If you get close, wear a mask. Always controversial. It's not controversial to me. If you get close, you wear a mask. Social distance. Social distance. You know the bottom line, though, you're going to get better. You're going to get better. If I can get better, anybody can get better.
ZELENY: But that's hardly the bottom line for most Americans, including more than 228,000 who have already died, a grim toll the president rarely acknowledges.
Biden showcasing empathy.
BIDEN: Over these past few months, there's been so much pain. So much suffering. So much loss in America.
ZELENY: And pushing back at suggestions his proposed mask mandates and other steps would go too far.
BIDEN: I'm not going to shut down the economy. I'm not going to shut down the country. I'm going to shut down the virus!
ZELENY: The long campaign is heading into its final weekend, with Democrats on offense, eyeing potential opportunities in Texas, where Senator Kamala Harris is visiting today. As Republicans defend terrain they easily won four years ago --
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I need you to show one more time that Iowa is Trump country.
ZELENY: In the final days of the race, all this campaigning may have diminishing returns. More than one third of all registered voters, 80 million Americans, have already cast their ballots.
But the weekend sprint is about ensuring high turnout among those who haven't, so former President Barack Obama is set to join Biden for the first time on the campaign trail Saturday in Detroit, while Trump is scheduled to barnstorm Pennsylvania.
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ZELENY: Now, Trump and Biden are both campaigning in Minnesota today, and a court ruling last evening is very important. The governor sending out a warning to voters there to not mail their ballots because of this ruling. There is a new potential law in place, where ballots must be received by election day.
There was an agreement that they could be received up to a week after election day, so watch for both sides to press that case in campaign stops.
But it is here in Iowa where Joe Biden is coming today that tells a big story of this race. Donald Trump won this state by nine points. Of course, Joe Biden also won the state as the running mate for Barack Obama back in 2008 and 2012 -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Jeff, thank you very much.
So there's this new CNN analysis that reveals just how President Trump's rallies are making people sick, and not just with COVID. We have all the details, next.
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BERMAN: This morning, the United States averaging more than one new coronavirus case per second. The U.S. smashed its daily record with nearly 90,000 new cases reported overnight. That is the highest number since the pandemic began. Joining us now, CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He's a
professor of medicine at George Washington University, the cardiologist for former vice president, Dick Cheney.
Dr. Reiner, the governor of Iowa, Mike DeWine, says there's no place to hide. How bad is it this morning? How much worse will it get?
REINER: It's very bad, and it's going to get worse until we do things differently.
So what distinguishes our current outbreak from what happened initially in the spring with our so-called first wave is that the virus is all over the country now. It's not limited to New York or Boston or the northeast. It's all over the country now.
And if you look at the Midwest, in fact, in many of the states that the president and vice president have traveled to recently, the positivity rates are enormous. So, for instance, Wisconsin, the positivity rate is 28 percent. In Iowa, it's 29 percent.
If you go out towards some of the western states, Wyoming, it's 55 percent. Fifty-five percent. That means that at -- more than one out of two people who get tested are positive. Which means they're basically only testing people who are symptomatic.
And we've gotten to this ferocious level of almost 90,000 cases of very, very quickly now. And it's accelerating.
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We also just passed a total of 9 million people infected. It took us only 14 days to accumulate the last million people. The first million cases took us 98 days. And at our current rate of cases, the next million will come in 11 days.
So we're not turning the corner. And when you tell people that we're turning the corner, they let their guard down. They go to -- they go to rallies. They go to concerts. They think about going to bars. You know, we are not turning the corner. We need to do things differently.
CAMEROTA: Dr. Reiner, there is actually now data that shows what happens after President Trump's rallies.
It was always common sense. I mean, it was always, you know, you and others always said, you can't put thousands of people together unmasked in a, you know, a confined space, even if you're outdoors without something bad happening.
Now we have some more actual stats about this.
CNN did an analysis and found that 17 Trump rallies between August and September, at 82 percent of them, the counties where these rallies were held had a spike within four weeks of the rally being held. Usually, much more than the spike in the surrounding counties, OK?
So not only did those counties go up, notably, they -- they were unusual. So it wasn't just that the state was going up. It wasn't just that the positivity rate was going up. It's that -- it's this. I mean, it's this. It's what you're seeing. And you know, just to know now for sure that people get sick from this.
REINER: It's simple. It's just biology, Alisyn. The virus is very contagious. And if you stand shoulder to shoulder with a lot of people for a prolonged period of time and you hoot and holler for a little bit, you will pass the virus around.
And because, as John was saying, the virus is everywhere now, there is no -- there is no safe place. And as the governor of Ohio is saying.
There's actually a tracker you can use online to estimate the risk for a certain-sized crowd in a certain location now. But just about everywhere in the United States, if you put a thousand people together, you are guaranteed to have an infected person in that crowd.
So that's what the president is doing. He's bringing together people, while the virus is accelerating around the United States, and the virus is being transmitted there. It's just biology. We need to do things differently. We're smarter people than -- than what we're acting right now.
BERMAN: You know, it's interesting, Alan Alda, obviously, the actor from "M*A*S*H" who has done a lot of work with the sciences over the last few years, he wrote overnight, Dr. Reiner, he said, "Trump once said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without consequences. At this moment, we're all on Fifth Avenue."
REINER: Yes, you know, that's right. You know, we keep -- we keep expecting to have different outcomes while we're doing the same thing over and over again.
So we can turn this around, and we will turn it around. The question is, how much pain do we want to accept?
So this is the way we turn it around. We stop making it easy for the virus. We separate ourselves. When we have to be in an enclosed space, maybe in closer proximity to people than we want, we need to have a mask on. Anytime you go out of the house, you have to have a mask on.
If we do these things, the rate of acceleration of this virus will start to decrease. And at some point, it will peak and start to reverse. And then hopefully, we'll have a vaccine. But we have to start doing things differently. It's not that hard.
The president, though, is listening to a single voice in the White House who is -- who is just incompetent. He has sidelined his professionals, and he has brought in a radiologist who has no expertise in this. He's not a clinician. He does not know what he's doing. And this is what is happening.
CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, we have all of this new reporting about how Dr. Deborah Birx has been marginalized and how Dr. Scott Atlas is the person who has the president's ear.
Doctor, if you were advising parents, what would you tell them about this weekend and Halloween?
REINER: Let's -- let's do something in the basement. Let's make a scary basement. It's -- you know, if you want to walk around in the street, you can walk around in the street. I'm not sure I would go into -- I would go up to -- if my kids were little now, I wouldn't take them from door to door now and have people hand you candy or reach into a basket, you know, where other kids are reaching in. It's not the time to do that.
[06:20:08]
If you want to have a parade in the -- in the community, get a bunch of kids together, mask up, that's one thing. But I would not go door to door. We'll do that next year.
BERMAN: Dr. Reiner, thank you for being with us this morning. I'm dying to know that next year, what you will be wearing as your costume for Halloween. Hopefully, we'll be able to have that discussion.
CAMEROTA: It will involve a mask. I know that.
REINER: I'm going to work on that. I love that. No, no masks next year!
CAMEROTA: OK, great.
BERMAN: Appreciate it, Dr. Reiner.
All right. Developing this morning, Clemson Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence has tested positive for coronavirus. He is the odds-on favorite to win the Heisman.
He will not play in tomorrow's game against BC, Boston College. He's almost definitely going to be the top pick of the 2021 NFL draft, should he decide to enter it.
He says his symptoms are mild and, at this moment, he is in isolation.
He is the biggest college football star in the country right now, so this obviously significant.
Three Midwestern states where coronavirus is surging could determine who wins the election. The election that is being voted on right now.
CAMEROTA: Yes, it is!
BERMAN: As we speak!
CAMEROTA: Yes. Very exciting.
BERMAN: We're going to break down why the Midwest is so important to reach 270 electoral votes, next.
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[06:25:31] CAMEROTA: President Trump and Joe Biden fanning out across the Midwest today.
CNN's Phil Mattingly breaks it down, how these states are key to reaching that magic number of 270.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Guys, we're just days away from all of this starting to change colors, turn into colors. Red, blue. Mercifully, some type of data will be coming in that we can actually read and get a sense of where things are going.
But if there's anything you just know for a fact, it's that crucial to whoever wins is going to be right in here. It's the Midwest.
You flip back to 2016, it was the Midwest. It was Pennsylvania, but it was Michigan and it was Wisconsin that was crucial to President Trump's victory, crucial to breaking through that blue wall, breaking the Democrats' back when it came to reaching 270 electoral votes.
And this time around, well, it's no different. It's exactly why on Friday you will see President Trump in the state of Michigan, in the state of Wisconsin, and in the state of Minnesota, which he just narrowly lost back in 2016.
But don't think the Biden campaign is not aware of this reality, as well. Because where will Joe Biden be? Well, he'll be in the state of Wisconsin. He'll stop by the state of Minnesota, and he'll be in Iowa, see if he can flip a state that went pretty handedly to President Trump in 2016.
And if you want to know why, it's everybody's looking at the same map and the same reality right now. It's not just 2016.
Here's where things stand right now. Race ratings. Dark blue, that means it's pretty safe Democrat. Light blue means it leans towards Joe Biden. And right now, the Midwest is leaning towards Joe Biden, and right now Joe Biden is above 270 electoral votes.
So let's map this out and kind of make clear how important the Midwest is for both candidates, but especially Donald Trump.
Say all of these gold states, very close states, as it currently stands. States like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, say they all go into President Trump's column. Happened in 2016, could very well happen again. Joe Biden still above 270 electoral votes.
Say even if you give President Trump the state of Pennsylvania, Joe Biden still would be president-elect of the United States. And that -- that is where these states matter the most.
Where is Donald Trump going to be? He's going to be in Michigan. He's going to be in Michigan. He's going to be in Wisconsin. He's going to be in Minnesota.
What happens if Donald Trump holds all these states, flips -- hits Pennsylvania again and hits any one of those three? Donald Trump wins a second term in office.
The Midwest, Florida matters, it's always about Florida. The southwest matters. Don't sleep on Arizona and Nevada. The Midwest will likely determine who the president will be, come January 20, 2021 -- guys.
BERMAN: Math! Math! It's math!
CAMEROTA: Get your abacus out.
BERMAN: You saw the numbers there. It's simple math.
CAMEROTA: Well, it's not that simple math. I mean, yes, it's --
BERMAN: Pretty simple.
CAMEROTA: -- on the bottom line. But there's a lot of different ways to slice and dice it, and that's why we're bringing in CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip and Alex Burns political analyst Alex Burns. He's a national political correspondent for "The New York Times."
Abby, you're up with the math lesson. Having just seen the way Phil did all of that magic math, how does that play into the strategy that we're seeing for the next few days?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, I'm not as good at math as Phil is, but I can tell you that you can tell by where these candidates are going what they think is important.
And the Biden campaign, in particular, because they're living with this sort of hangover from 2016, they really are in a position where they have to show up in that upper Midwest region, to make sure that they're signaling to their supporters and to the people who have yet to vote that they haven't forgotten about those states, because, you know, for four years, they heard, well, Hillary Clinton didn't even go to Wisconsin. She didn't even go to these states, and then she lost them. They don't want that to be the story in just a couple of days.
But you also see President Trump not giving up on some states that the polls seem to indicate have not really been that much within reach in recent months and recent weeks.
And part of that is just about keeping them competitive. The president has no choice but to keep those lanes competitive, because he's got some weaknesses in parts of -- the red parts of those maps in Florida, in -- even in Arizona, a state that he won last -- last cycle, that he really should win this cycle, too, but might lose to Joe Biden.
BERMAN: Look, one of the major problems with the seniors, why is he struggling with seniors? Because of the pandemic.
And Alex, you have written what I consider to be, I think, the definitive piece on the messaging in the closing days of the campaign. And what I think is actually the confluence of the messaging there. Donald Trump is out there saying the pandemic doesn't matter. And Vice President Biden is saying, Donald Trump is saying the pandemic doesn't matter. So they're basically making the same case. What are you seeing?
